The Cook, of course, was furious, but with the incredible amount of extra work preparing for the coronation, she had no time to try to find the boy. No one at all noticed that Scraper had gone. He had cleaned the fingernails of the Sewer Cleaners while they were asleep and they had been completely unaware he was doing it. Even when their fingers became infected and began falling off, they still didn’t realise someone had been giving them a manicure every night. They just put it down to vicious bacteria. ‘Must be all the curries everyone’s eating,’ the Sewer Cleaners said as they literally worked their fingers to the bone. Upstairs in the daylight, a wonderful atmosphere of holiday happiness filled the castle. It was like Christmas Day, only all the time and not in a cold place, but somewhere warm like Australia where Christmas is very weird because it’s the middle of summer. Five hundred peasants from the surrounding villages had made lovely decorations that were strung all over the castle from the highest towers.
